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Drug-impaired drivers can’t hope for miraculous escape

The Estevan Police Service (EPS) has recently experienced some problems with its government-approved roadside drug testing device, which they started exploiting in early 2019. The piece of equipment failed a couple of times and had to be sent away.
mobile drug-testing device
The Estevan Police Service started using the mobile drug-testing device early in 2019. File photo

The Estevan Police Service (EPS) has recently experienced some problems with its government-approved roadside drug testing device, which they started exploiting in early 2019. The piece of equipment failed a couple of times and had to be sent away.

“We had some technical issues with our roadside drug testing device. That instrument has been sent off to be repaired and inspected to make sure that it’s working appropriately,” explained Police Chief Paul Ladouceur.

There is a number of checks that have to go in place when it comes to assessing the driver's condition, and the police don’t rely solely on the instrument. There are safety checks that go along with the process of doing a saliva testing. Besides, the EPS always have a drug-recognition expert on duty, who can corroborate the findings of the instrument and who as well can determine if the device is functioning properly or not prior to using it on the streets.

Therefore, even before the drug testing device was sent off, it wouldn't affect the results of the roadside checks.

Ladouceur noted that it was quite a regular situation with high-tech equipment. Sometimes the EPS need to send off their road-side testing devices for alcohol to have them recertified or repaired as well, but they usually have spare equipment on hand. The situation with the drug-testing device was a bit different, however, it didn’t prevent the EPS from fulfilling their job.

“When we require a spare we can contact other agencies in the province or the company themselves and they supply us with the spare when the other one is being repaired. That’s the case that is going on right now,” said Ladouceur.

As far as the chief knows, other agencies didn’t have problems with this type of drug testing device, so for this year, the EPS isn’t planning on getting a new one.

“I don’t think it’s a great concern with the instrument itself. I think it’s just the case this one has had some difficulties with it, and they’ve got to subsequently repair it,” said Ladouceur. “If we saw that several of them weren’t working properly or having some technical issues across the province, that would be more of a discussion on why is this occurring and things like that.”

When functioning, the device itself was working well. It is one of the first types of instruments that the police are using for drug testing, so there is not too many options available yet.

“We want to just wait a little while to see what else is out there, what is coming. Cannabis is new as far as legalization goes… and as a result of that the federal government is also looking at what other devices may be approved in the future for use,” said Ladouceur.

If it comes to replacement, there is funding available for drug-testing equipment through the government. But as of now, they tend to stick with the one they have.

“Right now we feel that the device we have is working for what we need. And if we find that there is some more practical device that comes out that we’d like to explore then that might be something that’s sought after in the next years’ budget.”

The EPS members are trained in using the road-side drug-testing device, and while the local piece of equipment is getting fixed they will continue using a similar one, loaned from a different agency.

“There is not an officer there on the road right now that isn’t trained in how to use the saliva testing equipment. And we have four drug-recognition experts that are on duty… We also have several of our members that are trained in standardized field sobriety testing. So it’s pretty hard to get away driving in this community under the influence of drugs in present day,” said Ladouceur.